Pastor Raymond Osborne

�The First Fruit of the Spirit - Love�
1 Corinthians 13

Let me just read the first eight words from Galatians 5:22 as a review for us this morning:

�But the fruit of the Spirit is love.�

The first fruit that Paul chose to list for us is that of Love! You may find it strange of me, but I don�t like to sit down and write messages about �Love!� Why? The governing theological theme of the entire Word of God is what? �LOVE!� You cannot begin reading at Genesis 1:1 and arrive at Revelation 22:21 without coming to a reasonable conclusion that this is a book handed down through the ages that primarily deals with God�s love for all of His creation! The scriptural resources for us this morning are absolutely multitudinous! THAT�S why I do not like writing messages on love, because I go bonkers trying to figure out which passages to include and which ones to cast aside! I don�t want to cast ANY aside! But alas, if I chose to use them all, we�d be here forever and never beat the Baptists to lunch!

Last week I told you that the Word of God is very explicit that you and I, as God�s children are to be bearing and producing fruit, and that the kind of fruits we are to be producing in our lives are the fruits of the Spirit.

The word is also very clear that as the children of God, we are to be a people of LOVE. Love ought to not only exist IN us, but it should also permeate from us into the life of every individual we meet!

The story is told of one preacher who went to his church office on Monday morning and discovered a dead mule in the churchyard. He called the police. Since there did not appear to be any foul play, the police referred the preacher to the health department. They said, since there was no health threat, that he should call the sanitation department.

The sanitation manager said he could not pick up the mule without authorization from the mayor.

Now, the preacher knew the mayor and was not to eager to call him. The mayor had a bad temper and was generally hard to deal with, but the preacher called him anyway.

The mayor did not disappoint. He immediately began to rant and rave at the pastor and finally said, "Why did you call me anyway? Isn't it your job to bury the dead?"

The preacher paused for a brief prayer and asked the Lord to direct his response. He was led to say, "Yes, Mayor, it is my job to bury the dead, but I always like to notify the next of kin first!"

Now we all laugh because we can identify can�t we? We all know someone that is very difficult to love!

Listen to the words of John:
7Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God.

Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.

8Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son[1] into the world that we might live through him.

10This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for[2] our sins. 11Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

13We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit. 14And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.

15If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God. 16And so we know and rely on the love God has for us.

God is love.

Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him. 17In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him.

18There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

19We love because he first loved us. 20If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. 21And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother. (1 John 4:7-21 NIV)

�I love you!� �I LOVE you!� �I love YOU!� �I love you.� Those three words are three of the most important words in our vocabulary. They are also three of the most powerful words in our vocabulary.

They have been said by one spouse to another, a parent to a child, a child to a parent, from one teenager to another, and they are quite often knowingly used as a tool of manipulation to manipulate or even coerce someone into doing something they really don�t want to do, and they can also be used as blinders to keep others from really knowing how we feel about them.

We look at someone and say �I love you� and the minute their back is turned, we talk about them as if they are dogs.

Even within the Christian Community, where the mantra should �love one another,� it is often hard to find love.

This past week as I was out visiting at the hospitals and nursing homes, I became quite thirsty. So I decided I�d pull into one of our little neighborhood stores to grab a bottle of pop. When I got out of my car I heard what at first seemed to be a terrible fight going on inside the store. I hesitated about going in, but I had worked up a mighty thirst. I opened the door and when I walked in the people in the store BARELY noticed my existence and let me tell you they didn�t miss one lick!

�Why that XXX is the laziest, ugliest, fattest slob I�ve ever seen!� I stopped in my tracks! (looking at my demeanor of dress) �What do you think about XXX? Why before you know it they�re going to make him a dad blame deacon! And then, mark my words he�ll start preaching!�

�Yep! I tell ya, I don�t know what to do about XXX. Seems like he got his hand in every pot in the church! And I ain�t just talking about the soup pots either! The nerve of that man to think he can just come and join our church and start taking over!�

By this time I had made it safely to the counter, but I have to tell you I was a bit nervous placing my bottle of Root Beer up there!

I looked the cashier square in the eyes, who had no earthly idea who I was, and said, �So tell me, where is it I DON�T want to go to church?�

The yelling began again and this time it was directed to me, �You ever been in here and seen that ole fat slob that hangs out in here? Where HE goes to church?�

Am I wrong here when I think there is something terribly wrong with this picture? �Ole, fat, slob?�

Let me ask you a question this morning. When we get in whatever gossip group we are part of, and we are all part of some gossip group, and we begin to talk about our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ behind their back and verbally rip them to shreds like a lion on fresh meat, are we showing evidence of the fruit of love in our lives?

In James chapter 1, verse 22, we are given a very good piece of advice, here�s what it says, �Do not merely listen to the word, (of God) and so deceive yourselves (into believing that�s all that is required of you), but, Do what it says.� Yes I added the parenthetical to help us better understand what that verse means.

It�s good that we gather here to worship and to listen to the Word proclaimed, but that�s not the whole of what God wants for us. God wants us to not only hear what the Bible has to say to us about how we ought to be living, God demands that we live that way! It is the only way to please God! God not only wants us to hear this morning about loving one another, God expects us to do it!

Having studied both Hebrew and Greek I soon learned that most of the problems I had understanding the biblical languages stemmed from my understanding of English which is known as one of the most difficult languages in the world to master. Perhaps one of the reasons we don�t understand �love� is because of the abusive ways we have used the word and the ways we have twisted and contaminated its meaning. We use the word love and assign to it the meaning that best serves our own need at the moment.

In the Apostle Paul�s treatment of the subject of Love, he says this:

4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. (1 Cor. 13:4-7 NIV)

When I read those poetic words, I read words about how we ALL want to be treated! But, I also realize that as human beings we have a very difficult time living up to those words � don�t we? Yet, this is the way God intends for every one of us here in this place to live; lives keeping in step with the Spirit, producing the fruit of the Spirit and the first of that fruit being LOVE.

Do you know why �Love� is the fruit listed first? It is because all of the other fruit cannot exist without it. Love is foundational; it is primary to everything we do as present day disciples of Christ.

Again, hear the words, let the words leap off the page and saturate our beings:

4Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. (1 Cor. 13:4-7 NIV)

May it ever be so in each of our lives.

Amen!

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